He said the United States was an occupying force, rather than a liberating force. He predicted Iraq would become a cesspool for the United States as it was for the British in 1917.”

It’s no coincidence that he started getting booed two sentences in. Foghorns also sounded out, people sang God Bless America, and his mike was cut off twice. Normally, I’d be appalled at that type of behavior, but in this case, the speaker deserved everything he got. That’s because it’s not appropriate to go to a graduation ceremony and then reel off an incendiary political speech. To the contrary, it shows complete disrespect for your audience because they didn’t show up to have a political debate, they came to hear a successful person telling them how to “go out and make (their) mark.” Instead the audience at Rockford College was forced to sit through this sort of blather from Hedges…

— “The real injustices, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, the brutal and corrupt dictatorships we fund in the Middle East, will mean that we will not rid the extremists who hate us with bombs. Indeed we will swell their ranks. Once you master people by force you depend on force for control. In your isolation you begin to make mistakes.”

by Sir John Hawkins

John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.

— “This is a war of liberation in Iraq, but it is a war now of liberation by Iraqis from American occupation.”

— “We have lost touch with the essence of war. Following our defeat in Vietnam we became a better nation. We were humbled, even humiliated. We asked questions about ourselves we had not asked before.

We were forced to see ourselves as others saw us and the sight was not always a pretty one. We were forced to confront our own capacity for a atrocity — for evil — and in this we understood not only war but more about ourselves. But that humility is gone.”

Big surprise that this guy works for the New York Times, huh? It’s also no surprise that he tried to claim that his free speech was being squashed because people didn’t want to listen to this drivel at their graduation…

I didn’t expect that. How can you expect to have anyone climb on stage and turn your mike off,” Hedges said Tuesday during a telephone interview. “Watching it in my own country is heartbreaking.”

Do guys like this and the people who ran the Wellstone memorial service have any shame? Is there ever a little voice in their heads that goes, “you know, maybe now isn’t the best time for me to slam my political views down everyone’s throats?” Apparently not and that’s too bad…